The Significance of Memorials

Joshua 3:14-4:18

Jim Davis

Many of us see Memorial Day as simply signifying the beginning of summer vacations with Labor Day marking the end of summer vacations. Over the years the meaning of this day has been lost. 

Throughout the Bible we find God’s people establishing memorials for one reason or another. In Exodus 12 God established the Passover as a memorial to Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage. A memorial was established at Gilgal when the Israelite men were circumcised after they had wondered forty years in the wilderness. Gilgal was remembered as the place where God said, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” When God delivered Israel from the Philistines in answer to Samuel’s prayer, Samuel raised up his Ebenezer stone. It was a reminder that “Thus far has the Lord helped us.”

Old Testament memorials were to remind the Jews of what God had done for them. When David killed Goliath he placed Goliath’s huge sword in the tabernacle to serve as a reminder of God’s deliverance. 

Joshua raised a memorial when God backed up the waters in the midst of the Jordan for Israel to cross into Canaan after the wilderness journey (Josh 3:14-4:18). The priest stood in the midst of the Jordan River bed until the men armed for battle had crossed. When they had crossed Joshua commanded twelve men to place twelve large stones where the priest stood as the waters were backed up.

Joshua 4:4-7
So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever." 

The stones Joshua raised in the Jordan River may be gone, but the memorial he raised we see through faith, and thereby remains a memorial for us today.

The difficulty with memorials is that over time we forget their significance and tend to distort their meaning. God commanded Moses to lift a brass serpent upon a pole as a means of deliverance when snakes were biting the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai. Everyone who looked upon that brass serpent in faith was saved from the venomous snakebites. Moses placed that brass serpent in the Ark of the Covenant as a reminder of God’s deliverance. When king Hezekiah began his reign he destroyed the brass serpent because Israel was burning incense to it as an idol God.

We must not develop a flippant attitude toward sacred memorials. Paul told the Corinthians, "When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the lord's supper” (1 Corinthians 11:20)." The Lord’s Supper was being desecrated because the Corinthians had lost the sense of its purpose. Therefore it was no longer the Lord’s supper. We may go through an old cemetery casually observing tombstones. Sometimes kids get in the old cemeteries and knock over the tombstones showing disrespect for the memorial marker placed there by loved ones.

ILL.- Surprised to see an empty seat at the Super Bowl stadium, a diehard fan remarked about it to a woman sitting nearby. She said, "It was my husband’s seat, but he died."

"I’m very sorry," said the man. "But I’m surprised that another relative or friend didn’t jump at the chance to take the seat reserved for him."

"Beats me," she said, "THEY ALL INSISTED ON GOING TO THE FUNERAL."

We may become as flippant about memorials.

Significance of Memorials

There was a memorial offering under the Levitical system of worship. It consisted of cakes of bread made of fine flour and oil made without yeast. The memorial offering served a twofold purpose. It was an offering that was designed to bring the one offering it into remembrance before God. It also brought God into favorable remembrance with the offerer (Leviticus 2:2, 9, 16).1 It bridged the gap between God and man.

Gilgal was the first memorial established in the land of Canaan. One was established in the middle of the Jordan River as God miraculous backed up the floodwaters of Jordan. The memorial at Gilgal was different. It was where Joshua circumcised the Israelite men after the wilderness journey, “Then the LORD said to Joshua, ‘Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.’ So the place has been called Gilgal to this day” (Joshua 5:19). Gilgal remained a prominent place throughout Israel’s history. 

Judges 2:1-3
In the days of the Judges “The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, ‘I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.' Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be [thorns] in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you" (NIV).

Gilgal was a memorial to their new beginning in Canaan. The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal because it was a sacred place. You couldn’t mention Gilgal to the Israelites without reminding them that God rolled away their reproach there. It was the idea place for the angel to remind Israel of God’s faithfulness and their disobedience. 

The Israelites often traveled to Gilgal to offer sacrifices. 

1 Samuel 11:14-15
Then Samuel said to the people, "Come, let us go to Gilgal and there reaffirm the kingship." So all the people went to Gilgal and confirmed Saul as king in the presence of the LORD. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before the LORD, and Saul and all the Israelites held a great celebration” (NIV).

Gilgal was a place where the Israelites went to offer a sacrifice when they were in trouble. It was often a place where they would go when they lacked courage. It was a place they would go when they needed God’s help. It was their way of reminding God that he had rolled away their reproach. It was the place where they were reminded of God’s willingness to roll away their reproach when they had sinned.

The Israelites were often reminded of what God did for them at Gilgal.

Micah 6:5
My people, remember 
what Balak king of Moab counseled 
and what Balaam son of Beor answered. 
Remember [ your journey] from Shittim to Gilgal, 
that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD" (NIV).

The Israelites couldn’t remember their journey from Shittim to Gilgal without being reminded of God’s righteous acts as they journeyed and his graciousness at the end of their journey. He rolled away the reproach of Egypt, and Micah is reminding them that the same God is willing to roll away their reproach as they were suffering for their sins in his day. Notice Micah’s tender words to them after reminding them of God’s righteous acts at Gilgal.

Micah 6:6-8
With what shall I come before the LORD 
and bow down before the exalted God? 
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, 
with calves a year old? 
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, 
with ten thousand rivers of oil? 
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, 
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 
He has showed you, O man, what is good. 
And what does the LORD require of you? 
To act justly and to love mercy 
and to walk humbly with your God (NIV ).

Thankfully Gilgal reminds us that we don’t have to sacrifice our firstborn for our sinful transgressions. 

The memorials established throughout Israel were reminders of God’s faithfulness to the Israelites. When God delivered Israel from the Philistines in answer to Samuel’s prayer, Samuel raised up his Ebenezer stone. It was a reminder that “Thus far has the Lord helped us.” It is as if Samuel is saying, “We may not know what the future holds, but we know that thus far the Lord has helped us.” However, that was his clue to what God would do for them—God would remain faithful.

Those memorials reminded them of their need to follow God because of his faithfulness to them. They were reminders of God’s unquestionable, unmatched love for them. It is Christ's death on the cross that is the ultimate proof of Love for us.

The Christian Memorial

Thankfully today we have the cross to remind us of God’s faithfulness. The cross reminds me that God has already sacrificed his only begotten firstborn for the sin of my soul. 

If you doubt God’s ability to forgive, if you are afraid that he will forget mercy and deal with you harshly, you must remember that it is the cross that continually reminds us God of his love for you. It is the cross that reminds us our need of the forgiveness found there. It serves as a reminder to Him and to us.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them” (NIV).

The Lord’s Supper is the Christians memorial. Actually it is the culmination of all the memorials God’s people have observed throughout history. The Passover meal, circumcision at Gilgal, and the memorial bread pointed forth to an ultimate sacrifice, which was Christ. We are the realization of all those memorials in the past. 

The first national Memorial Day was a celebration for Civil War soldiers who had fallen in battle. Yet, it blossomed into something that had far more meaning. So it is with the Old Testament memorials. They simply foreshadow Christ’s coming. Christ coming was the essence of all those memorials.

When we come to Chris memorial feast it helps us to recognize the full worth of what God has done for each of us through his plan of redemption. It helps us understand God's plan of redemption that was taking place at that first Passover. It is here that we understand that Christ took up our infirmities and bore our diseases. It is here that we realize the ongoing healing power of God as Christ blood continues to wash us from our sins. (1 John 1:7) 

Communion is more than remembering Christ’s final death upon the cross. When first century Christians preached Christ, they were preaching Christ as the fulfillment of God’s promises to the Jews. It was a reminder of God’s wonderful plan to send a Messiah. Two gospel writers open their gospels by tracing the plan of God through the historical genealogical records to show that Christ was the fulfillment of all the promises of God. 

We need to be put in "remembrance" that Christ's entire life portrayed His unquestionable, unmatched love for mankind.

John 10:7-10
7 Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. NIV

Luke 5:20
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." NIV

ILL.- One time the popular actress Sophia Loren sobbed to her Italian movie director, Vittorio De Sica, over the theft of some of her jewelry. And he said to her, “Listen to me, Sophia. I am much older than you and if there is one great truth I have learned about life, it is this: NEVER CRY OVER ANYTHING THAT CAN’T CRY OVER YOU!”

What a lesson! And have you learned that lesson in life? Jesus reminds us that people are more important than things! People are more important than cars and computers. People are more important than houses and furniture. People are more important than all material things! People are more important to Christ than life.

John 4:13-14
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." NIV

1 Peter 2:21-22
21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 

22 "He committed no sin, 
and no deceit was found in his mouth."  NIV

Heb 12:2-3
2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. NIV
We need to remember that such love culminated in Christ’s eventual death on the cruel cross of Calvary. 
We need to remember the supreme sacrifice. 
He was the Son of God. 
He was entirely righteous. 
1 John 1:5
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. NIV
Having a full understanding of sin, He became sin for Me.
2 Cor 5:21
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. NIV

Rom 5:6-8
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. NIV

Romans 8:32
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
His death was not for His glorification; He was already in the presence of God in the beginning of time. 
But He suffered the shame, the scorn, and the terrible death on the cruel cross of Calvary for you and for me.
Isaiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed. NIV

Conclusion:

The faithful in Israel were constantly establishing memorials for the faithful to observe and follow. We need to understand the validity of establishing memorials for those we love. In the following verses we see two outstanding things that two individuals are remembered for.

Matthew 26:6-16
While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. 

When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked. 9 "This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor." 

Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." 

Then one of the Twelve-the one called Judas Iscariot-went to the chief priests 15 and asked, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over. NIV

Each chose the memorial by which they would be remembered. One was remembered for anointing Jesus with expensive perfume, and another for betraying him for thirty pieces of silver. In Hebrews chapter eleven Abel is remembered for a more excellent sacrifice, Noah is remembered for his faith, Abraham is remembered for looking for a city whose builder and maker was God, Moses is remembered for choosing to suffer affliction with the children of God rather than enjoying the riches of Egypt for a season.

We think such memorials are reserved for only a chosen few, but Christ is encouraging each of us to take up our cross to follow him. 

What kind of memorial are we leaving for those who will be left behind? Someone one said, “Memory is a wonderful treasure chest for those who know how to pack it.” We not only pack this treasure chest for ourselves, but we also pack it full of things for others to remember us by. We can pack it full of acts of faith for our kids and grandkids to remember us by.

We can live such lives that their memories of us will teach them how to have faith and confidence in the God of heaven.